Rearing of Native Bumblebee Species Bombus haemorrhoidalis for Greenhouse Pollination in Pakistan

Umer Ayyaz Aslam Sheikh (), Munir Ahmad, Muhammad Asif Aziz, Muhammad Imran, Junaid Rahim, T’ai Roulston, Shengnan Guo and Cheng Sun ()
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Umer Ayyaz Aslam Sheikh: Department of Entomology, University of Poonch Rawalakot, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Rawalakot 12350, Pakistan
Munir Ahmad: Department of Entomology, Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University, Murree Road, Rawalpindi 46000, Pakistan
Muhammad Asif Aziz: Department of Entomology, Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University, Murree Road, Rawalpindi 46000, Pakistan
Muhammad Imran: Department of Entomology, University of Poonch Rawalakot, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Rawalakot 12350, Pakistan
Junaid Rahim: Department of Entomology, University of Poonch Rawalakot, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Rawalakot 12350, Pakistan
T’ai Roulston: Blandy Experimental Farm, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Virginia, 400 BLANDY FARM LN, Boyce, VA 22620, USA
Shengnan Guo: Hengshui Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Hengshui 102206, China
Cheng Sun: College of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China

Agriculture, 2024, vol. 14, issue 4, 1-11

Abstract: Greenhouse tomato production is a growing business worldwide, and it is strongly promoted by bumblebee pollination. Although there are over 250 bumblebee species worldwide, very few species have been reared successfully for greenhouse tomato pollination. Those successfully managed species, especially Bombus terrestris , are shipped around the world for commercial use. However, managed bumblebees are known to escape greenhouse facilities, have established local populations, spread disease to local bumblebees, and are blamed for the declines of some indigenous bee species. An alternative to shipping exotic bumblebees around the world is to develop local species for greenhouse pollination. Such an approach has the dual benefits of creating a new industry of insect rearing while reducing threats to local bee communities. In this study, we successfully reared Bombus haemorrhoidalis , which is the most common bumblebee species in Northern Pakistan, in a laboratory and compared its effectiveness as a tomato pollinator with that of commercial B. terrestris in a greenhouse. We found that the effectiveness of B. haemorrhoidalis in tomato pollination in a greenhouse is very similar to that of B. terrestris when it comes to the fruit size, number of seeds, and fruit weight. Our study provides an example of how to rear a native bumblebee species to pollinate local crops, which is a method that could potentially substitute the importation of non-ingenious bumblebees.

Keywords: bumblebee; Bombus haemorrhoidalis; greenhouse pollination; rear local species; tomato (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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